South Africa is positioning itself as a continental leader in critical minerals, a sector seen as central to electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
But as the government and industry accelerate plans to expand exploration and mining, warnings are mounting that the benefits of the boom might once again bypass the communities living closest to extraction.
The concerns are surfacing in response to the department of mineral and petroleum resources’ critical minerals and metals strategy, approved by cabinet in May last year, which is designed to anchor the country as a key supplier in global value chains.
The strategy identifies 21 minerals and metals as critical, based on their importance to the economy and the global energy transition. It classifies platinum, manganese, iron ore, coal and chrome ore as high critical minerals.
It further identifies mineral commodities such as gold, vanadium, palladium, rhodium and rare earth elements as minerals with moderate to high criticality. Copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, nickel, titanium, phosphate, fluorspar, zirconium, uranium and aluminium are identified as minerals with moderate criticality.
The strategy prioritises exploration, beneficiation and investment attraction. It also proposes special economic zones, tax incentives and infrastructure investment to support local processing and job creation, aiming to link national growth with local development.
But the Centre for Environmental Rights warns that many mining-affected communities fear displacement and injustice as projects often proceed without free, prior and informed consent. “This has led to forced relocations, land disputes and inadequate compensation,” it said, noting economic exclusion as another major concern.
“The familiar ‘resource curse’ pattern — exporting raw minerals without local processing — limits job creation and deepens inequality, allowing elites to benefit while local labour is exploited.”
At a recent webinar on the legal framework governing critical minerals in South Africa, the centre’s mining programme head, Tarisai Mugunyani, cautioned that communities remained marginal to decision-making.
“We have positioned critical mining as this unique introduction that is being put into our economic development but critical mineral mining is mining in essence,” she said.
“We sit with an implementation crisis of our social and labour plans in the country. How will then these promised benefits be tangible for communities?
“We believe that as we speak around mining, mining benefits and how mining is centred as the bedrock of South Africa’s economy, we will do a disservice to any conversation if we do not put mining-affected communities at the centre,” she said.
Promises vs implementation
The strategy targets significant job creation, local procurement, community infrastructure and skills development through mining expansions.
But the commitments are unfolding against what Mugunyani describes as a deep implementation crisis, with only 24.5% of social and labour plan commitments delivered across audited communities.
Systemic risks cut across governance, infrastructure and environmental stress. Weak municipal capacity, growing water scarcity in mining regions and consultation deficits all threatened the “social licence” required for mining to operate sustainably, she said.
The risks were compounded by structural inequalities in how mining benefits were distributed. Despite the sector’s profitability, Mugunyani pointed out that host communities saw only 0.13% of corporate profits. Similarly, weak oversight of community trusts led to mismanagement.
Implementation constraints deepen the problem. Delays in compensation, infrastructure strain as populations grow and a mismatch between training programmes and available jobs limit the benefits that reach communities. Local businesses also face barriers to entering mining supply chains despite policy commitments to local procurement.
Environmental pressure points
About 16% of mines are in water-scarce regions, intensifying pressure on stressed resources. Dust and emissions contribute to deteriorating air quality, while land displacement disrupts traditional livelihoods.
Contamination from tailings and acid mine drainage poses long-term risks to water systems and health impacts, including respiratory illnesses, are borne by host communities.
The toxic legacy of the country’s 6 100 abandoned mines adds further strain, leaving what Mugunyani describes as “environmental debts” that communities continue to carry.
Against this backdrop, she argues that South Africa faces a stark choice: continue with a business-as-usual model or reshape how mining benefits are defined and delivered.
The urgency of the choice is underscored by new global research that situates South Africa’s concerns within a broader pattern.
The hidden costs of green minerals
A report the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health released on Wednesday finds that demand for critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt and graphite, could quadruple by 2050, with some materials rising by as much as 500%.
The minerals underpin the global shift to clean energy and digital infrastructure but their extraction is increasingly concentrated in vulnerable regions.
Africa, it says, holds 30% of critical mineral reserves, while South Africa holds 90% of platinum reserves.
“The economic and environmental gains of highly industrialised nations are often sustained by social and ecological injustices in resource extraction zones across the Global South,” the report notes.
The report’s lead investigator, Kaveh Madani, cautioned against viewing the transition as inherently equitable. “Technological disruptions are needed and useful,” he said.
“But we should be aware of and proactively address their unintended consequences if we want the whole world to equally benefit from them. You cannot call a transition green, sustainable and just if it simply moves the environmental harm from the rich to the poor.”
At the centre of the findings is water. Producing a tonne of lithium requires about 1.9 million litres. In 2024 alone, global lithium production consumed an estimated 456 billion litres, equivalent to the annual domestic water needs of 62 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
About 16% of global reserves are in high water-stress regions, while more than half of the projects sit on or near Indigenous territories.
In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, lithium mining accounts for up to 65% of regional water use. In Bolivia’s Uyuni region, extraction is undermining agricultural livelihoods.
Excluded communities
The environmental toll extends beyond water. For every tonne of rare earth minerals produced, about 2 000 tonnes of toxic waste are generated. In 2024 alone, global
production created an estimated 707 million tonnes.
The report describes critical minerals as the “oil of the 21st century”, warning that the transition risks creating new “sacrifice zones”.
Nowhere are the human costs more visible than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which supplies most of the world’s cobalt. Despite its mineral wealth, more than 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty, while more than 80% of mineral output is controlled by foreign companies.
Health impacts are severe. According to the report, 72% of people living near mining sites reported skin diseases, while 56% of women and girls experienced gynaecological problems. Birth defects are significantly higher in mining zones than other places and around 30% of mining sites employ children.
“The communities doing the actual digging, breathing the dust and losing access to clean water are largely excluded from its benefits,” said Abraham Nunbogu, the report’s lead author. “If we don’t correct the governance failures driving this, we will have built the clean energy economy of the future on the same extractive injustices as the fossil fuel economy of the past.”
For Tshilidzi Marwala, the UN under-secretary-general and rector of the United Nations University, this has implications for global development goals.
“A transition that deepens poverty, undermines access to clean water and concentrates health burdens on the world’s most marginalised communities is not a transition toward the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said. “It is a step away from them.”
Community-centred mining
In South Africa, the global warnings sharpen a pressing debate. Mining contributes about 6% to 7.6% of GDP and supports 470 000 jobs.
The country had 1 700 operational mines. Of those, Mugunyani said, 14 were platinum mines, 12 chrome mines, eight manganese mines and four iron ore mining operations.
“We have other mining companies that are mining moderate high criticality and the moderate criticality minerals,” she said. “Of concern to us will be the growing number of applications that will be put forth for mining of critical minerals and … the conversation around the funding mechanisms for those.”
Mugunyani said continuing with business-as-usual would mean under-delivery, conflict and missed opportunities. A community-centred approach, by contrast, would support a sustainable social licence, shared prosperity and more resilient supply chains.
“Success requires shifting from compliance to genuine partnership, with enforced accountability and transparent benefit-sharing,” she added.
South Africa is positioning itself as a key player in the global race for critical minerals but new research and warnings suggest those closest to extraction might lose out, echoing long-standing inequalities in the mining sector
